>>What are the french doing with the waste? I ask out of sheer curiosity.

France is 20 years ahead of anyone in this field and processes nuclear waste for many foreign countries as well as their own. France generates 80% of its electricity with nuclear generated power with 60 power plants.

"The COGEMA (part of AREVA, www.cogema.com) La Hague site, located on the western tip of the Cotentin Peninsula in Normandy France, reprocesses spent power reactor fuel to recycle reusable energy materials-uranium and plutonium-and to condition the waste into suitable final form."

Here is a reprocessing example of COGEMA's contract with the power companies of Japan :

Executive summary

The first transport of MOX fuel from Europe to Japan initiated in 1999 the process of recycled nuclear fuel return from Europe to Japan; it complements the transport of spent nuclear fuel from Japan to Europe (over 160 shipments) and the vitrified residues return from France to Japan (approximately 1 shipment a year for about a decade). Similar MOX fuel transports will be performed in the years to come on a regular basis.

In February 1997, the Japanese government stated that, in accordance with the country's long-term nuclear energy commitment, it was necessary for Japan to start utilising MOX fuel in its commercial nuclear reactors as soon as possible. Later that month, the Japanese electric power companies unveiled their plans to utilise MOX fuel in 16 to 18 reactors by 2010.
MOX fuel is manufactured in Europe with plutonium recovered at British and French reprocessing facilities under long-standing commercial contracts between BNFL (UK), COGEMA (France) and Japanese electric power companies. BNFL and COGEMA have an extensive track record in safely manufacturing, and transporting MOX fuel to various utilities in Europe.

How is radioactive waste disposed of?

In the nuclear industry, storage and disposal mean very different things: a nuclear waste can be either stored temporarily or disposed of definitively. Low-level, short-lived waste packages are monitored, bar code labeled and routed to ANDRA's near-surface disposal facility near Soulaines in the Aube Department. They are stacked in concrete vaults and separated from each other by grout or gravel. The vault is sealed with an impermeable concrete slab. The vaults are monitored continuously and the location of each waste package in the vault is entered into the database.

Long-lived high- and medium-level waste is stored first, primarily at La Hague. In 2006, the French Parliament will make a decision on the final disposal method to be used for this long-lived nuclear waste.

There is much more to this information page.
This is taken from COGEMA's site at
[www.cogema.com]